Introduction. Existing research on football economics mostly focuses on some key performance indicators’ influence on the profitability of clubs. This assumption is a bit misleading in the context of football business models which deliver various benefits other than profits to its stakeholders. In this research, the opposite question was asked: what can determine the intangible value delivered by a football business? This is asked in light of the fact that most of the value created by the football industry belongs to the category of intellectual capital.
Material and Methods. The study was based on the financial data of 33 European football clubs. Basic statistical analysis was carried out and regression analysis of chosen drivers influencing intellectual capital of football clubs in Europe was performed.
Results. Three of the four assumed hypotheses were not confirmed: higher value of intellectual capital is correlated with higher profitability, higher values of IC efficiency (VAIC) are associated with higher levels of player value and values of IC efficiency (VAIC) are significantly associated with levels of sports performance. Just one hypothesis was confirmed that values of IC efficiency (VAIC) are significantly associated with salary efficiency (S/R). Additionally, the study revealed that there are two important factors influencing the value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC): debt and salaries.
Conclusions. If we assume that VAIC is the goal of the managers, then the only two drivers which are significant for this value are salary ratio and leverage ratio. Moreover, we know that profit orientation of the football business in Europe is not the key goal in order to develop intangible values for the stakeholders.
